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As Europe’s sustainability reporting rules face intense political scrutiny, a new analysis by Frank Bold provides timely evidence that the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is already driving meaningful change in practice.
In reviewing the first wave of reports by 100 large European companies, the study finds that the CSRD has done what it set out to do: push sustainability reporting beyond box-ticking, provide useful data to users and turn it into a genuine management tool for navigating climate and social risks.
Across Europe, companies are beginning to show a more structured and credible approach to sustainability.
These shifts mark a cultural change in corporate reporting, where sustainability disclosures are no longer a mere PR exercise but a strategic tool to understand critical challenges, from energy and resource use to climate uncertainty, value-chain resilience, and how companies manage them.
While the first year of CSRD implementation led to noticeable improvements, challenges remain.
Particularly against the backdrop of the ongoing Omnibus simplification debate, such gaps and feedback underline why continued guidance—not deregulation—is essential to turn disclosure into effective risk management.
The research provides clear recommendations to policymakers and businesses on how to simplify reporting without weakening requirements, focusing on strategic and useful information.
The release of this report comes amid fierce discussions over the Omnibus simplification package and the rollback of corporate sustainability legislation. Following weeks of negotiations that ignored requests from businesses, investors and even the European Central Bank, the EU Parliament will hold a key vote in the JURI Committee on Monday 13 October.
Proposals to dilute reporting and due diligence requirements risk undoing the progress achieved in just one reporting cycle. Misguided simplification efforts create uncertainty for companies that have already invested in improving their systems.
By limiting availability of critical data the EU will be compromising on its competitive edge. To scale up clean tech and advance EU's strategic goals in energy efficiency or resource autonomy, access to high-quality, large-scale data is essential. The CSRD secures this information flow from companies.
This is critical for the EU to strengthen industrial competitiveness, counter China’s lead in manufacturing and green tech, and withstand pressure from the U.S and other oil-rich countries to maintain dependence on fossil fuel imports.
As this report shows, reducing sustainability reporting to a compliance cost misses its value as a strategic asset for Europe’s industrial and geopolitical strength.
This project is part of the European Climate Initiative (EUKI) of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).
The International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR) along with the European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ) and the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA) launched a report by International Experts on Business and Human Rights, entitled “Human Rights Due Diligence: the Role of States”. The International Experts commissioned included Professor Olivier De Schutter, Professor Anita Ramasastry, Mark B. Taylor and Robert C. Thompson.
The International Corporate Accountability Roundtable (ICAR), the European Coalition for Corporate Justice (ECCJ) and the Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA), are pleased to announce the launch of our Human Rights Due Diligence Report, the common approaches and available options resulting from the “Human Rights Due Diligence Project.”
Environmental Law Service is co-organising a half-day conference on lobbying transparency, ethics regulation and citizens participation, taking place in Brussels on 16 November.
